A nice buck in South Carolina was found dead with a bottle attached to its tongue.
Echoing a sentiment shared by all those who love and care for the outdoors, Quality Deer Management Association writer Lindsay Thomas spoke with both indignation and surprise when he told the story relayed to him by Bob McCutcheon.
Apparently, friends of McCutcheon had found the now dead buck near a pond on McCutcheon's property. While the property is some 350 acres, the big deer had found its way to water, maybe as a last gasp.
"It hadn't been dead very long, maybe a day," he told the QDMA. We checked for bullet holes. None. It didn't look like it had starved. We thought maybe it had been hit by a car."
What it did have was unnerving to say the least, and more than a little anger-inducing: the remnants of a bottle attached to its tongue.
Someone at some point had thrown the bottle into the woods, and the buck investigated it to its death. This will make you rethink all those pictures and video of sea creatures wrapped in trash, or birds whose gullets are filled with plastic.
"I had a picture of that buck on camera but had never lain eyes on it before," McCutcheon said. "He was the biggest buck I've ever seen on this property. He was a big deer for this area. I don't know where it got that bottle. We keep a tidy place here. There's no beer bottles lying around."
More than likely the buck was dying of thirst, which was probably why it was found by the pond, but the exact cause doesn't really matter.
Is there anything worse for sportsmen than to find someone else's litter out in the field? Well, how about finding an animal that died because of it? We're all responsible to clean up after ourselves.
It's high time we lose that nagging feeling of being snitches when we see litter bugs out there. If you see something, say something.
Photos via QDMA
NEXT: FROZEN BLOCK OF FISH? OKAY, THAT'S SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERY DAY
WATCH
https://rumble.com/embed/u7gve.v3tr93/
